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Monday, June 20, 2005
2 hospitals operating 'faulty' waste disposal
By Rimaliza Opina
TWO hospitals in Baguio City were found operating faulty waste disposal systems by the City Environment and Parks Management Office (Cepmo).
Of the five hospitals that underwent inspection, the Cepmo revealed that the City garbage collectors are the ones collecting hazardous waste coming from the Saint Louis Hospital (SLU) of the Sacred Heart and the Fil-Chinese General Hospital.
Nazita Bañez, action officer on waste management, said hazardous waste should be disposed of in the hospital's on-site disposal system.
Hazardous waste include used gauze, cotton, cloth, bandages, syringes, blades excluding amputated body parts, as this are classified as pathological wastes.
Gaudencio Tiwing, supervising sanitary engineer of the Department of Health (DOH) in Cordillera, confirmed Cepmo's findings but he was quick to add that prior to the inspection done by both the Cepmo and the DOH, efforts were already made by the two hospitals to address the problem.
He said as of the latest inspection done last Friday, both already prepared a site for their waste disposal system, through the put-up of a septic vault and the site would be ready in a month's time, he added.
Tiwing said SLU Hospital then used an incinerator to discard hospital waste but because of the ban on the usage of incinerators as per the Clean Air Act, the facility was forced to abandon the method.
He, likewise, clarified that it is allowed and safe for hospitals to bury pathological waste as he said this is the best alternative in the absence of an incinerator or a better option for hazardous waste disposal.
It is also up to the Baguio Health Department to inspect if those who bury pathological waste at the city cemetery employ hygienic measures, he added.
Tiwing added that five hospitals in the city - the Baguio General Hospital (BGH), SLU Hospital, Pines City Doctors Hospital, Baguio Medical Center (BMC) and Fil-Chinese General Hospital - have complied with the mandatory chemical soaking of their waste before final disposal.
The Cepmo, meanwhile, reported a high compliance rate in waste segregation among hospitals of Baguio.
The BGH, SLU and Pines City use color-coded garbage bags to classify the different types of waste generated while the BMC and the Fil-Chinese, which don't utilize the color-coding method, nonetheless segregate their waste, the City environment office added.
(June 20, 2005 issue)
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